Means to prevent flight of improperly changed shuttle



R. G. TURNER MEANS'T'O PREVENT FLIGHT OF IMPROPERLYpI-IANGED SHUTTLESSept. 15, 1936. v

Original Fi led Sept. 15, 1933 r nuentor' Fhchard G-J'urnem ttornegsPatented Sept. 15, 1936 UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE MEANS TO PREVENTFLIGHT OF IBIPROP- ERLY CHANGED SHUTTLE Richard Greenleaf Turner,Worcester, Mass, as-

signor to Crompton & Knowles Loom Works, Worcester, Mass, a. corporationof Massachusetts Original application September 13, 1933, Serial No.689,209. Divided and this application July 16, .1934, Serial No. 735,319

4 Claims.

,tles of the different stacks move during or preparatory to the shuttlechanging operation. In the form of invention set forth in the aforesaidapplication I show front and back cells or stacks with the commoncompartment located under the front cell and in front of the lowestshuttle in the back cell. The latter shuttle is forced positively intothe compartment and slides along a supporting platform, being guided byclips or the like which extend around the ends of the shuttles. Thebottom shuttle of the front cell is required to fall through a distancesomewhat greater than its own height, and there is an opportunity for itto rotate, in which case it may reach the compartment on its side.

In order to prevent this undesired rotation of the front reserveshuttles I have provided means for advancing the bottom shuttle of therear stack so that the front wall thereof will lie practically in thesame plane as the rear wall of the descending front shuttle, mutualengagement of the shuttles preventing rotation.

When the rear cell is empty, there is no engagement such as justdescribed, and I have proposed in the application mentioned to extendthe clips to such a position as will enable them to engage a rear ruledsurface of the falling shuttle. Should the clips fail to operate asalready described there is the possibility that a shuttle may enter thetransferring shuttle box on the lay with one of its'sides down. Thismight happen also if the operator should inadvertently place one of theshuttles on its side when supplying the stack with fresh shuttles. Underthese conditions it would be quite desirable to prevent the shuttle frombeing picked out of the box, or at least picked into the shed.

It is accordingly an important object of my invention to provide a stopon the shuttle box or lay so located as to permit the full sweep of the.scending along surface results in this alignappear as the descriptionproceeds, my invention resides in the combination and arrangement ofparts hereinafter described and set forth in the claims.

' In the accompanying drawing, wherein a convenient embodiment of myinvention is set forth,

Fig. l is a detailed transverse section taken through the lower part ofthe shuttle changer magazine and the upper part of the lay, showing theboxes for effecting shuttle change, a reserve tles F and R which arerespectively atthe front and rear of the magazine. A delivery finger i0is movable about an axis H to release the bottom shuttle of the frontstack. A clamp I2 acts to engage the shuttle immediately above the bot-ftom one to prevent the descent of the superimposed shuttles of the frontstack when the finger I 0 moves to the dotted line position shown inFig. 1.

.A plunger head 15 actuated through a rod l6 cooperates with the bottomshuttle of the rear stack and extends through the rear wall I"! of themagazine. A lever E8 pivoted at I9 is actuated by mechanism not shownwhen it is desired to advance a shuttle from the rear stack tocompartment C under the front stack. A light spring 28 serves to returnthe lever and plunger head to normal rear position.

Thehead l5 has two arms 2| and 22, respecwardly beveled surface 25, asshown more particularly in Fig. 1. This bevel extends down to a verticalsurface 26 on the head located to engage the rear wall of the bottomshuttle in the rear stack. V

The two stacks are separated by a partition 30 having a front surface 3!in line with the front of the bottom shuttle of the stack R. The advancemovement of the latter shuttle when de-,

ment. When so located the shuttle at the bottom of therear stack willengage the rear surface of a falling shuttle from the front stack andcause the same to move correctly to an uptionary magazine M having twostacks of shuttively, each of which has a forwardly and downrightposition, such as indicated in: dotted lines in Fig. 1.

' late'the movements of the front shuttles.

result may be accomplished by the use of a guard 1 So long as there is-areserve shuttle in the cell or stack R, the falling front shuttles willbe guided as described, but when the-rear stackis empty, it is desirableto have additional means to reguhie 35 which is secured by screws 36 tothe plunger head I5; The guard is extended on each side of the head andis bent as shown in Fig. 2 to conform more or less to the shape of theshuttles;

The forward ends of the brace are. bent toward each other as at 31 toform clips the front edges of which as shown at 38 are substantiallyvertical to engage the rear wall of the front shuttles at pointssufficiently removed from the shuttle tips to prevent shuttle rotation.Thesection shown in Fig. 4 illustratesa convenient relation of theholder with respect to that part of ai shuttle having a straightvertical surface, the edges 38 lying against the ruled surface 39 ofthe'shuttle.

' The guide 35, being mountedon the heal-1J5, jmoves forwardly with thelatter so that the extensions 3! move forwardly with an advancing rearshuttleand do not interfere with it.

I The lay L may have top and bottom, boxes 40' and 4 l which as setforth in the aforesaid application, are raised during the shuttlechanging 'operationso that the-pivoted cover 42 of the top box can beelevated sufficiently to make a-clear passage'throughthe top of theupper box into which the shuttle in the compartment C may fall.Rearwardly extending supporting fingers 43 may be secured to' the layand support the shuttle in the compartment C until the top box'arrivesin rear position to receive the shuttle. These fingers 43 form nopart'of my present invention, but are substantially the sameinstructureand function as those shown in co-pending application SerialThe matter thus far described operates nor-' mally to require ashuttle'moving from the magazine into the top-box lllito retain itsproper position so that weaving can continue after the shuttle change.The clip or guard 35 is claimed in application Serial No.=689,20-9, ofwhich this is 'a division.

' If'the shuttle'enters the box improperly and 'should rest on its side,proper weaving can-not.

ensue and it is desirable under these conditions to stop the loom, andthe means for jaccompl-ishingthis result, forms the subject matter ofthe present-application. Bypreventing delivery of the shuttle from thebox, the weft stop motion 'not'shown' but well understood can act toprevent weaving by stopping the loom; The picking operation normallyoccurs before the filling fork comes into action and in order to preventlbreakage of'the picker stick it is desirable to place the "shuttlearrester so that it will not engage'the' shuttle until the stick hashadits full unobw structed movement. 7 a a In carrying out my invention1 place a stop '59 'as shown in'Fig. 3' on the lay :sword' l. so

that the lowercurved surface thereof is at suchi a distance above therace 52 as to prevent comj'plete picking of a shuttle which ison itsside by the picker stick P, but permitting uninterrupted itslib'ottom.'In other words, the distance between delivery of a shuttle which 'isproperly resting "on the race and the stop 50 is slightly greater than.thehe'ight of the shuttle but less than its breadth, and is alsolocated about a shuttle length from the'inn'er end of the sweep of thepickerstick.

As shown more particularly in Fig. 3, the bottom of stop 50 lies belowthe side 60 when the shuttle is on its side, but above the top of theshuttle when the latter is on its bottom, "as suggested by dot and dashline 6 5, Fig. 3. The

normal working stroke of the picker stick P is such that it issubstantially completed before stop 58' brings the misplaced shuttle torest.

7 The resistance to shuttle'motion offered by the stop or means 50 willresult in loom stoppage by the usual devices so that the incorrectlytransaferred shuttle can be inserted properly by hand.

Either the filling stop motion or the protector mechanism can be reliedupon to stop the loom. Failure of the shuttle to lay weft willoperatethe filling stop motion, and failure of the shuttle to arrive at theopposite side of the loom at the proper time will cause the protector.to stop the loom.

From the foregoing it will be seen that I have provided means forpreventing an improperly changed shuttle from becoming active. While theshuttle is intransit from a front cell to the box 40 means are providedeither by means of 'a shuttlein the back cell, or bysurfaces'independent of the back shuttles, to engage the front movingshuttleand prevent rotation thereof on i its axis. Should the shuttleturn over while moving from the magazine, the stop will prevent theshuttle from being picked into the shed,

after which well-knownstopping mechanism will 7 herein disclosed, butwhat I' claim is:'

1. In a shuttle changing loom, a lay, a picker moving through a givenrange of action, a magazinefor reserve'shuttles, a shuttle box onthe'la'y its bottom'or side, and a stop on the lay to engage ashuttleplaced improperly in the shuttle;

box and on its side as a result eta-faulty move- 1:0 receive from themagazine a shuttle either on ment of the magazine from the shuttlebox,said stop being located adistance from the near end of the range ofaction of the picker greater thanthe distance between thatpart of the'shuttle engaged by the picker and that part engaged by'the stop. 2. Ina shuttle changing loom having a magaer width than height, a lay'with ashuttle race, a shuttle box on the lay to receive a'reserve shut-,

zine of reserve shuttles each of which is of greattle from the magazine,a picker stickhavi-ng apicking str'okeito drive a shuttle placedinto'the shuttle box out of the latter, and astop. located above theshuttle race a distance less'than'the width 7 of the shuttle and greaterthan the shuttle height, said stop located to engage a misplaced shuttlewith the width thereof vertical and at a distance along the lay from theshuttle box sufilcient to the picker' stick to have substantially acomplete picking stroke before engaging a mis-.

shuttle from entering the shed of the loom.

' 5. In a shuttle changing loom, a lay, a picker moving through a givenrange of action, armagazine for reserve shuttles, a shuttle box on thelay to receive a shuttle resting either on its bottom or its side, and astop on thelayiat the magazine end of the loom to engage a shuttleplaced shuttle for the purpose of preventing the which is resting on itsside as a result of faulty movement from the magazine to the shuttlebox,

of the box whether it be on its side or bottom, and means along the pathof the shuttle located above the race sufficiently to be out of the pathof a shuttle on its side but positioned to resist movement along thepath of a shuttle on its side when the means to pick has reached the endof its range of movement, the shuttle being stopped due to theresistance ofiered by the last named means to the shuttle on its side.

RICHARD G. TURNER.

